… Squad departs on Monday for Barbados

COACH of the National Under-15 cricket team, Colin Stuart, expressed confidence that the young recruits could do Guyana proud during the 2017 Regional Tournament, which will be held in Barbados from July 25 to August 3.
Guyana won the first of their four titles in 1998 before becoming back-to-back champions in 2014 and 2015. They were runners-up last year.
However, Stuart, the former West Indies fast bowler, who was given the mandate to oversee the squad, expressed optimism over his team’s chances.
“The team had a good build-up ahead of this tournament. We participated in the Inter-County Under-17 tournament recently and also did some work at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence at the LBI Community Centre on the East Coast of Demerara,” Stuart said.
He added, “Yes, the weather affected us somewhat, but based on the 20-man squad announced, I feel we have players capable of producing, players I am confident will do us proud”.
Meanwhile, the 20-man squad, which was announced previously, will be trimmed to 14 members who will depart on Monday.
The U-15 tournament – in its 21st year – will be contested under a round-robin format, featuring five rounds of matches with the team accumulating the most points being declared champions.
For the Regional Under-15 Tournament, this will be the first time that it will be played in Barbados and teams can look forward to playing matches at a number of picturesque, rural venues, especially the KMV Oval at Lakes in the north-eastern parish of St Andrew.
The 20-man squad, which will be trimmed to 14 players reads: Shoaib Shaw, Ricardo Ramdeholl, Daniel Dharamdat, Marvan Prashad, Sheldon Charles, Andre Seepersaud, Saif Omai, Mark Ramanand, Akash Heerlall, Gaurav Ramesh, Shamar Yearwood, Romel Retemiah, Devendra Kamraj, Trevor Charles, Anthony Williams, Movindra Dindyal, Chanderpaul Ramjat, Abdul Ramsammy, Ranaldo Mohamed and Daniel Mootoo.